A Texas man convicted and sentenced to demise for the 2000 theft and homicide of his cousin, James Mosqueda, and the cousin’s fiancee, Amy Kitchen, was executed Wednesday night. James Powell of USA At the moment reports that Ivan Cantu continued to say that he was harmless proper as much as his demise, arguing that his ex-girlfriend gave false testimony at trial implicating him within the killings and that his protection legal professional was incompetent. Kim Kardashian contacted Texas Governor Greg Abbot asking him to postpone the execution for 30 days and 150,000 folks signed a petition urging a keep of execution. Primarily based on the overwhelming proof, it’s outstanding that anybody might query Cantu’s guilt.
Courtroom records point out that at 11:30 PM on November 3, 2000, Cantu referred to as his cousin and requested if he might come to the home that he shared along with his fiance. Cantu took his gun with him and returned an hour later driving his cousin’s Mercedes and carrying his driver’s license and home keys. Cantu’s girlfriend threw his bloody denims and socks within the trash. After Cantu cleaned up, he and his girlfriend returned to the sufferer’s home. Whereas Cantu searched the home for medicine and cash, the girlfriend noticed the sufferer’s our bodies in the main bedroom. Cantu took the lifeless fiance’s engagement ring and gave it to his girlfriend, then the couple drove off in his cousin’s Corvette. Police found the our bodies the following day whereas Cantu and his girlfriend had been visiting her dad and mom in Arkansas. A police search of Cantu’s condo uncovered his gun, his bloody denims and the keys to his cousin’s Mercedes. At trial, a forensic professional testified that Cantu’s fingerprints and the murdered cousin’s blood had been discovered on the gun. DNA proof confirmed that the cousin’s blood was discovered on Cantu’s s denims and the fiancee’s blood was discovered on his socks. Ballistics testing revealed that the bullets retrieved from the sufferer’s our bodies had been fired by Cantu’s gun.
Following his conviction and demise sentence, legal professionals representing Cantu filed at the very least twelve petitions in quite a few state and federal courts over twenty-three years in search of to delay or overturn his demise sentence. Over that point a podcast claiming that Cantu was harmless, an OpEd within the Austin American Statesman and information tales from CNN contributed to the trouble by demise penalty opponents to halt his execution.
Loss of life penalty opponents typically declare that condemned murderers are harmless and typically folks, who haven’t really regarded right into a case, imagine them. Their actual aim is to not forestall harmless folks from execution, it’s to forestall any executions. Ivan Cantu killed his two victims for cash, medicine and automobiles in a state that enforces the demise penalty for murderers like him. Thank goodness that liars and fools didn’t forestall him from receiving the justice he deserved.
